Thursday, January 1, 2015

Are New Year's Resolutions the Way to Go?

New Year's Resolutions . . .

Do you make them?

Should you make them?

I've been thinking about the whole idea of new year's resolutions the last couple of weeks. It's that time of year when we look forward to another year and often feel a need to set some goals - to make some resolutions for the new year.

They seem like a good idea at the start of the year. And then we get to February and we haven't kept most of them. We've broken them and it's easy to feel discouraged.

A couple years ago, I wrote a post about how to keep your new year's resolutions. I don't disagree with anything I wrote in that post, but now I wonder if setting new year's resolutions is really the way we should be going.

In the two years since I wrote that post, I've seen things in my life take a very different turn from what I had planned in January. Things have gone in a direction I couldn't have imagined at the start of the year - a better direction that was definitely from God. Seeing that makes me wonder if new year's resolutions are really the best way to go. 

What if, in making them, we put ourselves in a box and take a chance of missing out on what God has for us because we're focused on what we think should happen?

What if, instead of making new year's resolutions, we began the year with seeking God? With asking Him what He has in store for us and surrendering our will and ideas to His plans?

What if we decided we would follow God's leading wherever it takes us - even if it's not what we would have planned?

Instead of setting a plan in place that we may or may not keep to a small or large degree of success, what if we were intentional about surrendering the year to God as it begins?

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